A little over a year into his second term, U.S. President Donald Trump is facing the lowest approval ratings of his term thus far, including a drop in approval for his immigration policy. This drop comes on the heels of fatal shootings by federal agents.
“The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll showed Trump’s overall approval rating sinking to 38%, tying the lowest level of his current term as it dropped from 41% in the prior Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted January 12-13,” said the outlet Monday. Reuters/Ipsos polling data shows that Trump’s approval rating previously fell to 38% just before Thanksgiving last year.
This month, the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens – Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both 37 – at the hands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Minneapolis, Minn., resulted in national outrage. After the Pretti shooting over the weekend, even Republicans have expressed concerns about the Trump administration’s approach it it’s immigration crackdown.
Reuters/Ipsos’ polling was conducted Friday through Saturday – the day Pretti was killed. Good was shot dead in early January.
“Just 39% of Americans approve of the job Trump is doing on immigration, down from 41% earlier this month, while 53% disapprove, the poll found. Immigration was a brighter spot for Trump's popularity in the weeks following his January inauguration,” said Reuters. “In February, 50% approved and 41% disapproved.”
Reuters noted that Trump won the 2024 election “after promising a historic surge in deportations.” He lost his first bid for a second term to former President Joe Biden during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, which halted some immigration into the U.S.
In a Sunday Substack post, political analyst Nate Silver described immigration as generally Trump’s “least-bad” issue, as far as polling is concerned. Typically, polling on Trump’s immigration policies has been around 6 points higher than his overall rating. Silver said “that gap has mostly evaporated” this month.
Around 58% of respondents to the recent Reuters/Ipsos poll said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have gone “too far” in their crackdown. Just two in 10 Republicans think the agents have gone too far, compared to nine in 10 Democrats. Independents responded closer to the Dems, with around six in 10 who said the agents have gone too far.
According to Silver’s tracking of Trump’s approval ratings, the president’s net approval rating on immigration declined by about 4 points from the day before Good’s death on Jan. 7 and the day after Pretti’s death on Jan. 24.
“Meanwhile, his overall approval rating has declined by 2 points and is near its second-term lows,” said Silver. He said Tuesday that Trump’s net approval has decreased nearly 26 points over the past year. He reported a “-11.7 net approval rating on immigration,” is a second-term low for Trump.
Another source reporting a drop in the president’s approval ratings this week is The Economist. Its regularly updated approval tracker showed that Trump’s rating was down 0.1 points week-over-week as of Tuesday to an overall net of -18%.
“Americans do not seem happy,” said The Economist. “At the beginning of Mr. Trump’s second term his net approval rating was 2. It has now fallen to -18. A week into Mr. Trump’s term 37% of Americans thought the country was headed in the right direction while 50% thought it was on the wrong track. Those numbers are now 31% and 60% respectively.”